Allen smiled as he recounted the instructions from McMillan, never having been so happy to hear a coach disagree with him.

"There's no funner basketball," Allen said.

That exchange exemplifies the biggest difference in the Sonics this season, a conversation that crystallizes the harmony that has developed between Allen and his coach.

In many ways, they are a pairing of opposites. McMillan's 12-year playing career was highlighted by his defense; Allen is a five-time All-Star because of his offense. McMillan looked up to coach George Karl as a mentor. In Milwaukee, Allen came to see Karl as a tormentor.

There were plenty of possibilities for conflict between McMillan and Allen; instead they discovered common ground. And though neither man says there has been anything wrong in their relationship, it's clear that it has never been stronger than it is now, with Allen averaging 27.6 points against the Spurs in the series.

The Sonics' best chance at victory in Game 5 tonight is to throw caution -- and the playbook -- to the wind. To play uninhibited, unscripted basketball, just like they did Sunday.

"He was just giving us full rein to go out and play," Allen said.

That's no small step. McMillan is a Type-A personality, but on Sunday, he relished the results of ceding control and granting his players carte blanche on offense.

"They just played basketball together," McMillan said yesterday. "They played hard. I thought they played smart ... They dominated and controlled a very good team. That was fun for me to watch."

It was a far cry from the way last season ended, the Sonics missing the playoffs for a second consecutive season and the tempo at which the team played becoming a central issue.

Allen and fellow guard Brent Barry said the team needed to pick a style of play and be consistent. McMillan said Allen had failed to understand the tempo had to slow to keep the team's younger players from developing bad habits.

McMillan said he talked with Allen after the season, just like he did the rest of the players.

"We never had problems," McMillan said. "Players make comments just as coaches do."

Said Allen, "I don't think we ever got our signals crossed."

But there was at least a little underlying tension. As a coach, McMillan loved the disciplined offense of a team such as Jerry Sloan's Utah Jazz. As a player, Allen is at his best freelancing, probing and looking for his scoring opportunities.

When the Sonics finished with their fewest victories in 18 years, there was bound to be friction.

When Allen was in Milwaukee, friction had ignited into a small brushfire. The tension between Allen and Karl was one of the precipitators of his trade to the Sonics in February 2003. When Allen arrived in Seattle, he immediately saw similarities between McMillan and Karl, from their terminology to their points of emphasis.

"I understood (McMillan) from the first year I got here, because he and George are so much alike," Allen said. "Not alike, but his philosophies."

There was a critical difference, Allen said. In Milwaukee, Karl always compared Allen to Gary Payton.

"George used to try to make me something I wasn't," Allen said. "It was like he wanted Gary so bad in me because that's all he would talk about is what Gary did and how he was and that's what he wanted to make me into."

But once in Seattle, Allen was no longer shadow-boxing with Payton's style of play.

"Nate has never tried to make me into anything else other than who I was," Allen said.

Not that it's always perfect. McMillan turned away upset after Allen took a quick 3-pointer in the second half of Game 2, the Sonics down 13 and trying to make a run. But that's part of a give and take between the coach and his top player more than it is a tug of war.

"He has always said, 'I want you to go out there and be aggressive and play how you play,' " Allen said. "At the same time, he has asked of me to be more defensive-oriented."

It is a cooperation forged by conversation, McMillan said.

"You talk about it," McMillan said. "What I think he needs to do, and what I can do for him. And how do we reach that working relationship? Just the fact that we respect each other."

It's not just finding a way to work around the differences, but to embrace them. The defensive-minded coach finding comfort in the offensive firepower his team showed on Sunday in Game 4.

"To have that power at your fingertips was like a general pushing buttons," Allen said. "You can just have the army over here to the left. You can have tanks. You have missiles.

"So many things, as a coach, when you have offensive firepower, it's like you can pull any trigger, any button and you can score."

And halfway through the fourth quarter, the Sonics could have coasted in. When McMillan encouraged them to keep a foot on the gas pedal, it showed just how far his team has come.

"He played the game from a defensive frame of mind for so long ..." Allen said. "But it's like he sees the good of this team and he allowed it to just go and flow. Get wild and crazy."